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Friday, July 24, 2009

There's a restaurant in Aydie in South West France that serves the best omlettes in the whole world. It's slap bang in the middle of the Madiran grape growing region with spellbinding views of the surrounding countryside but unfortunately only from the car park! We go for the omlettes not the view and they are to die for!

Rich, bright yellow eggs streaked to perfection, big strong ceps, home grown garlic and a pinch or two of salt all rolled into a creamy, moving mass of mouthwatering flavours. Served with a plate of pommes frites, a simple green salad, some bread and a pichet of wine - you're in taste bud heaven.

I love to try to evoke the tastes and flavours of Aydie when we're far far away and sometimes when we're quite close too but no matter how often or hard I try mine never taste quite the same - but an oeuf of that. This is how I make them:

It's vital to use eggs from corn fed chickens. If you can't pick your own ceps buy them in tins - this is expensive but well worth it. You could use field mushrooms but then the omlette would end up tasting rather ordinary and you would wonder what this posting was all about. Try to find ceps fresh or tinned for an outstanding flavour.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

12 large corn fed chicken eggs

400g tinned (drained) or 500g fresh ceps finely sliced

2 garlic cloves creamed with salt

Knob of butter for cooking each omlette

Salt to taste

Parsley to garnish

Method:

Make one very large omlette if you are brave enough or four individual ones. For four omlettes in turn crack 3 eggs into a jug and gently fork them through creating delicate white streaks. Care taken here not to to whisk or beat the eggs too hard allows for a nicer presentation. Add quarter of the creamed garlic and a pinch salt.

Heat the pan then add a knob of butter and pour in the eggs, gently fluff up by drawing the fast cooking eggs away from the sides and into the centre - this puts air into them and helps to prevent sticking. Once the eggs have started to cook around the edges but the centre is still runny add the drained or fresh ceps to one side of the omlette and cook a little longer. Fold the side free of ceps over to cover the cep side and cook another minute or two then quickly slide off onto a hot plate. A wise cook would use Chinese cooking chopsticks instead of a fork to fluff up and to fold. Continue with the next three omlettes. Garnish each omlette with a piece of parsley and serve immediately.